Creating posts locally

Your best option would be to look at posting via email so that you can write posts and them mail them to your blog when you have ‘net access.

“Your best option would be to look at posting via email so that you can write posts and them mail them to your blog when you have ‘net access. “

Thanks esmi,
Do you mean that using MAMP is not possible for what I described or is it that you are unfamiliar with MAMP? I am posting my teaching materials on seven subjects for my students and the blog is going to be large so if possible I would like to write and configure the layout of the blog locally and then just synchronise it. The existence of MAMP seems to suggest this is possible – am I wrong?

Steve Price

Windows Live Writer will also allow you to write Posts on your PC then when you have internet access have Live Writer call your blog and upload the post.

Do you mean that using MAMP is not possible for what I described or is it that you are unfamiliar with MAMP?

It’s not possible for all practical purposes.

“It’s not possible for all practical purposes. “

Well Esmi,
I don’t find that a particularly helpful, informed or friendly comment and as I notice you are a moderator can you refer to me to a more senior support person please. If any other users can be more helpful I’d be glad to hear from you.

Stephen W. Price
[sig moderated as per the Forum Rules]

I don’t find that a particularly helpful, informed or friendly comment

I’m sorry. It was intended as both helpful & friendly and describes the situation as honestly as possible. In order to post via your local install, you would have to find a way to sync the 2 databases (local & remote). Whilst this may be possible theoretically, in reality, it would be extremely difficult – therefore it’s not possible for all practical purposes.

can you refer to me to a more senior support person

There is no support team here, so there is no “senior support person” to refer you to. All that’s available in the way of support is us volunteers.

Hello Steve,
You may also want to consider BlogDesk I myself use this. Often I don’t have time to finish all my blogs but would like to save post locally and update straight to my blog.
Hope that helped
[sig moderated as per the Forum Rules]

“Windows Live Writer will also allow you to write Posts on your PC then when you have internet access have Live Writer call your blog and upload the post. “

Thanks Salidude,
I use Macs and anyway I am keen to find out more about this MAMP product that seems to almost do the job whether it is practical or not. Cheers.
Steve

“There is no support team here, so there is no “senior support person” to refer you to. All that’s available in the way of support is us volunteers.”

Hi Esmi,
So who appointed you a moderator? I would like to contact them.
Stephen W. Price

MAMP is just a number of programs that allow you run a local web server on a Mac. Running MAMP does not offer you any extra connectivity to your blog. It’s primary use is to allow for the development of PHP/MySQL sites locally instead of on a remote server – the kind I’ve been creating for the past 9 years. It does not offer you any options to upload locally written posts to a live site.

“You may also want to consider BlogDesk I myself use this. Often I don’t have time to finish all my blogs but would like to save post locally and update straight to my blog. Hope that helped”

Hi Artsmc,
I must admit I am considering other products, I’ll take a look.
Steve

“MAMP is just a number of programs that allow you run a local web server on a Mac. Running MAMP does not offer you any extra connectivity to your blog. It’s primary use is to allow for the development of PHP/MySQL sites locally instead of on a remote server – the kind I’ve been creating for the past 9 years. It does not offer you any options to upload locally written posts to a live site.”

Hi esmi,
Thank you, you answered one of my questions. Slowly we are getting somewhere. I did however only say the snycing bit would be nice if possible. It would still be advantageous to me to write and configure the local blog and then do it all again online. Your reply implies that I could use MAMP to create a local blog. My next question is therefore what is the easiest way to get the local blog to look and work the same as the remote one I have already set up. Assuming it can be done, would you please explain briefly, what I would have to do.
Stephen W. Price

Once you have installed WordPress locally, your next step would be to install the same theme and plugins that you’re using on your remote site. Next, login to your remote site and use Tools/Export to export your live site’s content as a downloadable WordPress xml file. Once you’ve downloaded the xml file, login to your local site, navigate to Tools/Import and import the xml file into your local install. That should give you a copy of your remote site’s content.

Bear in mind that you can only do this export/import routine once. The import adds posts to a site. It doesn’t over-write existing posts. If you imported your remote site’s content into your local install (or vice versa) more than once, you’d get duplicate copies of many posts. So you can’t use this method to sync your sites longer term.

“Once you have installed WordPress locally, your next step would be to install the same theme and plugins that you’re using on your remote site. Next, login to your remote site and use Tools/Export to export your live site’s content as a downloadable WordPress xml file. Once you’ve downloaded the xml file, login to your local site, navigate to Tools/Import and import the xml file into your local install. That should give you a copy of your remote site’s content.”

Thanks esmi,
Wordpress already exists locally with the plugins and same theme in th correct folder. I figured that part out. The problem is the actual installation instructions are geared to a remote server and I cannot find any instructions/details how to set up a local installation. Do any such instructions exist?
Stephen Price

The procedure should be exactly the same, the only difference should be the address you use to access the pages and how you move files around (ie. you’ll move files around on the PC as you normally would as opposed to having to FTP as you would with a remote server).

Usually a local installation utilises localhost, this might vary but generally it’s localhost.

https://localhost – would be the address you query in your browser.

I can’t speak from experience having not used MAMP, but MAMP, like WAMP, XAMPP and all the others works on the same principles, in short these applications just allow you to run a virtual web server in a manner of speaking, it’s like having a Linux server locally(but you don’t need to be on Linux obviously – emulation if you like).

The easiest way i feel to copy content from local -> remote, IMO is to just copy and paste the content from the relevant posts. By the time you’ve exported -> imported data, the time spent is no less then doing a copy and paste (although you may prefer the process, choose what suits you best). Of course i’m refering to copying individual new posts and not bulk (bulk data is of course better dealt with by an export->import routine).

NOTE: Images are stored in the wp-content/uploads folder by default (not the database), of course if you insert images locally (in the editor) you’ll have to do that part again remotely (since the images won’t exist on the remote server). I don’t know if the export/import routine in WP covers this (i’ve never used it myself – i do things manually), perhaps someone can clairfy.

Why run a local install / server?
Advantages:
Page load times are quicker.
Editing files is quicker.
No need to upload changes to files, just click save in your chosen editor (the file is local so no upload process).
Full control over PHP, MySQL and Apache configuration.
No limit on databases or db users.
Takes moments to backup data (it’s a local folder, will take a few seconds to copy a folder/files as a backup).
No security concerns (noone else can see it, let alone hack it or do anything with it).

Instructions, as said should not differ from a local installation in MAMP, WAMP or any other server emulator, the only differing factor should be the address you use, which for local servers tends to be https://localhost.

If you’d like to clarify what point you’re at getting things installed i’ll try to give a more direct answer on how to next proceed.